* How the hell did the Toad brigade get to the hungry Luma galaxies first when the Luma just transformed? And how were penguins supposdedly living in that galaxy for years when it was just created?** That was already discussed. Solution 1: '''It's a Mario game!''' Solution 2: The Luma galaxies or planets are all in the Luma's mind; it's just its imagination until it becomes reality the moment it transforms, at which point the [=NPCs=] on the planet have in fact been there for years from their point of view.* Why does Super Mario Galaxy always get the shaft in terms of representation in spin-offs? Aside from the galaxy-themed Rainbow Road, and Rosalina in Mario Kart Wii and the dream events in the Mario & Sonic games, there hasn't really been anything, not even the slightest reference. I can understand Brawl for not having a Galaxy themed stage, but what stopped Mario Super Sluggers, Mario Sports Mix, or Mario Party (though 9 could have some Galaxy themed stages). Logic doesn't really cut it, especially since a Goomba can play baseball despite not having any arms. Furthermore, why isn't Rosalina in any more spin-offs; I figured she'd be the one character that would be shoved in all the spin-offs, but so far she's only been in Mario Kart Wii.** SM Galaxy only came out, like, a couple years ago. Good game or not, it is simply not as recognizable as other games in the series.** Rosalina ([[UnexpectedCharacter and Queen Bee?]]) are both in Mario Kart 7, and in one of the stages, the first planet in Gateway Galaxy and the Comet Observatory appear in the background, if that helps. And what do you mean you can understand its absence in Brawl? It came out a year before Brawl, and Brawl got delayed three/four times. The only reference to the game is in the Chronicle. Not even a trophy or sticker. That's appalling!** (OP here). Well, I didn't expect much from Brawl, since like how SSB and SSBM focused most of its Mario representation on Mario 64, Brawl would focus most of its on Sunshine. Though now that you mention it, the fact that it had no trophy or stickers is a bit odd, especially since Luigi's Mansion and Pikmin had one in SSBM despite coming out rather recently. I also don't think it not being as well known shouldn't be an excuse. SMG is the only 3D Mario to get a sequel, so that surely must count for something. Even now, Sunshine still gets referenced a lot in most of the non-Mario Kart spin-offs, and I'm pretty sure most people would know more about the two Galaxy games than Sunshine.** Actually, there are ''Galaxy'' references in ''9'': [[PlantAliens Whittles]] can actually be seen in the backgrounds of some of the minigames. And ''[[VideoGame/MarioTennis Mario Tennis Open]]''? Luma's now a playable character.** About Rosalina not being in many of the spin-offs, maybe it has something to do with her status as TheHighQueen and one of the few non-wacky characters of the franchise? Seeing a character like her playable in a place like ''VideoGame/MarioParty'', ''VideoGame/MarioStrikers'', or ''VideoGame/MarioAndSonicAtTheOlympicGames'' would feel quite bizarre, even for Mario standards. That's not to say it ''couldn't'' happen, but there's a chance that thought causes some hesitation on the dev teams.*** Rosalina recently became an unlockable playable character in SuperMario3DWorld.*** And she recently was revealed to be a new playable character in the next Super Smash Bros. (for Wii U/3DS)* In the Battlerock level, you feed star bits to a hungry Luma, who then transforms into a planet. Okay, standard fare. However, the planet has an NPC on it. Where did this guy come from? Did he pop into existence when the Luma transformed, and when you find him, he's only a minute or two old? Is he the Luma, just in a different form? Did he manage to somehow fly over to this planet really quickly before you get there? Furthermore, it is implied that the NPC has been working really hard on that planet for a long time. How is that possible, if the planet just then popped into existence?** The purpose Lumas are meant fulfill is to transform, into stars, planets, even entire galaxies...but Rosalina mentions that they are also continually reborn so that the cycle can go on for eternity. Perhaps the Hungry Luma had transformed into that planet once before, and then it was destroyed, whether by a black hole, being blown up, or some other third thing. After the Luma was reborn, he created the planet once again, this time as was seen in-game, and the NPC there simply 'woke up' and resumed his existence, possibly without even knowing he'd been destroyed in the first place.* Furthermore, consider the blue Lumas that sell you mushrooms. You can feed them star bits, and they'll give you a 1-Up or a life meter boost. The thing is, they don't simply give you the mushroom. No. They ''transform'' into the mushroom. Assuming that Mario eats the mushroom to get its powers, did Mario just eat an innocent Luma?** You should probably add 'Why are they on the bad guy's ship in the first place?' Or coincidentally a few feet away from a boss arena? Are they completely suicidal?** Lumas seem to be effectively immortal thanks to reincarnation; they're probably deliberately helping out Mario.** That, and their purpose is explicitly stated to be to eventually transform into something else, and if that helps save the universe, so much the better.

* When a Hungry Luma turns into a galaxy or a planet, it's new, and Mario should always be the first one on it, so how the hell do people like the Toads get the power star before Mario? And how have penguins supposedly been living there for years when you just caused the galaxy to be formed?** Maybe the galaxies were born with built-in histories and organisms. We're part of OUR galaxy, after all. Not the best excuse, but it's better than nothing.** As for the Toads, it's important to remember that the rate of Mario's progress through the galaxy is wholly dependent on where its Launch Star drops him off at. The Toads have their own spaceship they can use to fly right past many of the obstacles.* How did Bowser, after getting thrown into the hollow sun around the planetoid where he is last fought (which I assume to be the titular Galaxy Reactor), end up on the smaller lava planet? And whether or not you can explain that, why did that world implode into the black hole when the hollow sun is so much larger, and had the Grand Star removed from it (which was being used for ''something'')?** It's possible he got punched ''through'' it.*** That may explain why he got there, but nothing else. And didn't he float there?** The reactor the Grand Star was trapped inside was being used to power the star Bowser emerges from in the ending sequence - I'm guessing the 'hollow sun' was only there for cosmetic purposes. And after stars have burnt up all of their energy and no longer have a way to sustain themselves (losing the Grand Star), they do eventually implode and turn into black holes with time.*** It still would make more sense for the centerpiece of the level (the boss arena in the hollow sun with the Grand Star powering the something) to be the focus of the ending.** Maybe in some ways, but scientifically speaking, there's no such thing as a hollow sun, as far as I know. The thing surrounding the reactor is basically just a sphere made entire of lava, not an actual star. (Which is actually kind of smart, to put it there, since the only way to reach the reactor is by flying, and the lava-sphere makes it so that you can only fly up to it from certain angles.)*** That does not invalidate anything I asked. He teleports to a lava planet for no reason, then ''that'' "sun" implodes the Galaxy Reactor.*** I don't know how Bowser ended up emerging from that star after he'd been defeated in the final battle, especially since I haven't played through the ending myself as of yet. But the star was being powered by the reactor - the glass planet the final battle took place on - and when Bowser was defeated and the Grand Star was freed, it robbed the star Bowser had created of its power source, causing it to collapse in itself and become a black hole, like real stars do. (Although there is a lot more to it when it happens in real life, of course.)*** So how did Bowser, end up on the smaller lava planet/sun, and why did that sun (of all things) implode? *** No word on how he ended up there, but (as has already been explained several times now), the sun that imploded did so because it was being powered by the Grand Star that Mario just freed from inside the reactor. When the Grand Star was freed, the sun rapidly burned through its remaining energy, and the loss of energy meant that there was nothing to counteract the sun's gravity, thereby causing it ti collapse in on itself and form a black hole.* How the hell did Guppy get from Sea Slide to the bottom of the underground lake in Deep Dark Galaxy?** Perhaps he's actually a SpaceWhale?** Perhaps he has a twin who lives in Deep Dark Galaxy.** Maybe used a spaceship?* You're getting rid of the trash in the ammo depot by blowing it up. [[SarcasmMode Because it's not like there would be debris or anything.]]** And if you don't destroy all the trash in 30 seconds, all of it magically re-appears!** Actually, when you think about it, it wouldn't leave debris, or at least nearly as much. It's ammo, so it'd probably explode with the bomb. However, the debris from ammunition would likely be shrapnel, which is infamous for being deadly. So blowing up an ammo dump just to clean it up would still be a HUGE mistake.** Another shining question: ''Why the hell is the mission timed in the first place?'' There's no real explanation for why there's a strict 30 second timer on the mission. In fact, all that's ever said about it is when you fail the mission, when the robot chastises you and says "No, no, no! You gotta do it faster!"*** Not to mention that if you fail, it says "There's always more". If there's always more, then what does blowing it up in the first place do? And why on earth (or any other planet) does it think that a just reward for completing a ridiculous challenge in a ridiculous amount of time is ''some unidentifiable piece of junk it found lying around?''*** The Power Stars seem to be artifacts containing enormous amounts of cosmic energy...It's possible they actually give off some sort of ''pull'', that serves to draw space junk to that tiny planet. The Gearmo just doesn't realize that by giving Mario the star, he's actually fixing the problem himself, rather than rewarding someone else for fixing it.* As mentioned on the main page, if you talk to a Gearmo after failing to get all the purple coins in the Battlerock and Dreadnought Galaxies, you instantly die. ''Why does that happen?'' Did the Gearmo kill you? And if so, '''''why?'''''** Because the game knows that the only way you're leaving the stage at that point is to die. You can't go back for the coins you missed, so the Gearmo acts as a way to put you out of your misery without having to jump into a pit.* And they never do explain where Peach gets so damn many 1-Up Mushrooms and how Bowser is stupid enough to let her send them to Mario. Or even how she knows where to send them.** Maybe it's something like in ''Paper Mario'', where Peach was originally kept inside her castle until Bowser discovered that Mario was on his way to save her, and there was some magical chest or something that let her send letters to Mailtoad from where she was being held. Or maybe there was a Luma serving as a liaison between Peach in her castle and Mario in the observatory.** The Luma liaison is rather plausible, in fact - throughout the game, Rosalina makes mention of how she's determined the location of Mario's special one, even though she personally has no way of knowing this as she never leaves the observatory. It's possible that she spends the game sending Lumas to gather intel on Peach and Bowser's whereabouts, and Peach uses this opportunity to give her letters to them. The Lumas might not know what letters are - I don't see any reason why they'd need to write them - so they just give them to the strange mushroom man who claims to be exchaning pieces of paper from one person to another.* In [[TearJerker the storybook]], how exactly did a little girl and a Luma build [[spoiler:the Comet Observatory]] by themselves? It's mentioned that some furniture is buried within the comet of ice that they landed on, but how much, and how did they get it out?** It's the ''Mario'' universe. That kind of thing can happen.** Think of the storybook as a creation myth. These legends are usually filled with inconsistencies that get handwaved away because at the beginning of time things worked differently than they do now.** That requires it to have been the beginning of time, when clearly she came from another planet that was already there.*** It's true that it's not a creation myth, but it ''is'', at its heart, meant to be a bedtime story that Rosalina reads to comfort the Lumas. Stories meant for very young children are typically lacking in the kinds of details you'd expect to find in most others.** I think what they actually built was a house for them both to live in, though a very ''large'' house at that, and that Luma's transformation did something, I'm not quite sure what, that allowed it to become the observatory seen in-game. What I'm wondering about is how they managed to restore a rusted old spaceship back into working order by themselves.* What I'm confused about is the location of the original comet of the Comet Observatory. Is it the tiny planet with the houses that's the first planet you land on, or is it the star at the center of the entire Observatory? That star is the right size and color, it's just that it's a star, not a comet made of ice.** I'm inclined to say the original comet turned into the tiny planet since that's where the house she built is. They appear to be connected in some bizarre way since she walks into the house and somehow shows up at the Gate dome of the observatory during the ending cutscene.*** Then why is the Gateway Galaxy starting planet implied to be Rosalina's "every-100-years-visit" home? It looks and sounds nothing like the planet in the storybook, and it makes more sense for it to be the comet, rather than Rosa's home planet. I personally think the Earth-like planet visible in the background near it was where she came from. My only guess is she visits the small planet to look at the Earth-like planet to reflect and remember.** Strangely enough, when Rosalina departed from her "home planet" in her storybook, the contrail from her Starshroom leads right back to the smaller planet in the Gateway Galaxy, and not the larger, blue planet nearby. So...my guess is that Rosalina never actually lived on the Mushroom World, but since her home planet did orbit around it, she could still consider it her "home world". One of the houses on the smaller planet was hers when she was young, while the other one was created when Luma's transformation formed the observatory...for some reason. I'm not sure why.* In Sea Slide Galaxy, everyone begs you to teach Guppy a lesson because he's hogging the sea all to himself. After you beat him, he suddenly has a change of heart, and helps you in future missions there, even being friendly towards the Toads and penguins. That's all fine and good, but when you go to Deep Dark Galaxy, suddenly the Toad Brigade is telling you to teach Guppy a lesson again! What happened between galaxies to make them hate Guppy?** As mentioned above, there could be two twin Guppys, the latter being a JerkAss.* What is that UFO that appears in the cutscenes at the beggining of the game? Does it have something to do with Bowser's discovery of space travel? Also, how did Bowser got acess to all the tecnology he has in the game? The koopalings might be good with machines, but they're no rocket scientists.** I'm afraid I can't speak much for the Koopalings, but it seems like the technical knowledge and resources held by the Koopa Troop coupled with the omnipotent energy reserves obtained from the Power Stars they stole from the observatory would suffice as a reasonable explanation, along with any of the various technological benefits Bowser and his forces would've come across during their universal conquest.*** Sorry, my mistake. I was really talking about the Koopa Troop. Maybe they could get this knowledge from the power stars... But how did they reach the observatory before knowing how to travel through space?*** Mmm...My interpretation? Perhaps Bowser was flying around in the atmosphere the night of the Star Festival, brainstorming (or just wishing) for his next plan to squash Mario and kidnap Princess Peach, when he noticed the great comet spoken of in the Mushroom Kingdom appear to stop within the distance of a nearby planet. He used the technology his troops had already developed at that point to journey a short distance into space and investigate, where he attacked the observatory while Rosalina was busy in the Gateway Galaxy looking over her home world and stole the Power Stars before she could do anything to stop him. Then the Koopa Troop used their energy to upgrade their tools and weapons, to better suit them for interstellar travel, and they proceeded to travel across and begin dominating the cosmos while Bowser returned to the Mushroom Kingdom one more time in order to kidnap Peach.* Looking down from the observatory, you can see several orange outlines of stars displayed across the surface of the planet below...What exactly are those supposed to be? I'm no amatuer when it comes to astronomy and even I can't figure it out.** I always thought they were huge light displays for the Star Festival.** That's not a bad answer, but after Mario has spent so much time traveling through space, you'd think they would've at least taken the lights and decorations down, right? Or were all of the Toads just running in circles and panicking during the time that Mario and Peach were gone?** [[BluntYes Yes.]]* How does Luigi travel to the different galaxies he becomes lost in in the game? If I recall correctly, he's known to show up in some where the Toad Brigade and their Starshrooms aren't present...so how does he do it? Did Rosalina entrust ''him'' with a Luma like she did with Mario?* What was Megaleg doing where it was? Its galaxy doesn't have any sort of buildup like any of the other boss galaxies do - there's just one planet with a few enemies and then the boss robot sitting there alone on the next planet, completely deactivated, floating around in the middle of space. Couldn't Bowser or Bowser Jr. have found a better, more productive use for its Grand Star while still maintaining a way for them to crush Mario if he came along?** Maybe the bullet bills fired by Megaleg are used to destroy nearby planets to harvest resources on them. This explains why the only planets in this galaxy are Megaleg's planet and another one with holes in.* This is more of a meta-headscratcher than anything, I suppose, but why is Rosalina frequently accompanied by a single yellow Luma in spin-off materials? Given she's the mother of what must be several hundred of them...if they're going to feature one alongside her, why not at least make it the Luma who helped Mario in his quest, since he was the reason she became their mother to begin with? Not to mention how in ''Super Mario Galaxy 2'', she seems to have a stronger bond with him especially, sending him all the Star Bits in those letters and seeking to reunite with him at the end of the game...** The majority of Lumas are that yellow color, so Rosalina's probably paired with one because it's the most recognizable type of Luma.* Why does Lumalee need to transform into a mushroom whenever Mario purchases one from her? She already has both kinds on the tips of the two sticks she's holding - why can't she give him one of those?** This troper always saw them as advertising signs, not functional items. She's just showing her wares, but the sticks don't have "real" items on them.* People who play this game, and the sequel, making Luma suicide jokes...Why do they do that? Beyond the blatant fact that suicides aren't funny, which is something people shouldn't have to be told, it's not a death so much as it is a ''transformation of life''. On top of that, the sequel reveals that Lumas still remain sentient and able to speak after transforming into Launch, Sling, and Pull Stars, and the Hungry Lumas in the original game would reappear in the observatory even after you fed them enough for them to transform.** Agreed. The underlying theme of the game is one of rebirth and the life cycle, so to claim that the Lumas are dying makes little sense. Rosalina herself explains that the Lumas just take a new form.* What happened to Polari after this game? He seemed to be an elder Luma and an advisor to Rosalina, but he's never seen again after. Did his stellar cycle end?** Chances are, since Rosalina was reduced to basically a background character after her debut in this game, they chose not to include Polari when he would have little to do or say even if he appeared beside her. However, I have heard that he appears in some of her victory animation from a spin-off golfing game, and one of her Luma recolors in ''Super Smash Bros'' also resembles him. In-universe, an argument could be made that Rosalina leaves him to look after the observatory when she's spending time in the Mushroom Kingdom with Mario and co. - given she's the observatory's caretaker, one can assume Polari could thus be looked at her second-in-command, of sorts.*** On the other hand, though, it's also likely that throwing himself into the supermassive black hole reset Polari's life cycle, and so it will be many, many years before he reaches the age he was in this game, in which case, he could be one of many Lumas encountered in ''Super Mario Galaxy 2'', or one of them somewhere else across the cosmos that Rosalina hasn't managed to find yet.** Speaking of Polari, however...Exactly how does the relationship between him and Rosalina work? All Lumas apparently start out thinking of her as their mother...Did this also apply to him? If so, it seems kind of...weird to think that he grew up looking to her as a mother, only for her to start looking to ''him'' as a father-figure as he grew older, right? ** It's possible that Polari was an old Luma even when he met Rosalina, so their relationship didn't come into conflict. * Okay, one more: In-universe, why are Polari's eyes blue? I understand that it provides contrast and makes them visible to players, but were Polari's eyes blue before he "dimmed" with age? Lubba had blue eyes, too, even though black would be just as visible. Do adult Lumas get blue eyes?** It is likely only due to his age - if what's posted above is correct, Polari would have to be ''astronomically'' old, even moreso than Rosalina, whose own backstory details the years she has to have lived through. One may presume that he also never saw fit to transform during his lifetime, which would have reset his life cycle and, presumably, his color. The same would also apply to Lubba - at the ending to the second game, he mentions having crossed paths with Rosalina previously, and that it's been "forever" since he's seen her last which, given her lifespan, may not be that much of an exaggeration. In any case, chances are he spends too much time looking after his starship and crew to have time to worry about what he would be interested in transforming into.* Why has Bowser never thought of using ''Lumas'' in some grand scheme of world conquest? They're basically floating little sacks of stardust that can form new planets and galaxies by ''exploding'', so I'm willing to bet he could find some way they could be used. Not to mention, they're pretty easy to come across; both games imply that Lumas are regularly found across many different galaxies in the universe and are continually reborn, unlike Power Stars, which are only easy for Bowser to obtain if he tries stealing them from Rosalina or Lubba - he could easily travel the universe starnapping Lumas from different planets and even Rosalina would probably be none the wiser. Why has this never occurred to him yet?** ''Videogame/SuperMario3DWorld'' seems to show that if it's not a princess, Bowser doesn't want to capture it. Although, there are imprisoned Lumas throughout the galaxies, but they're not being exploited, only used to prevent Mario from using their Launch Stars.* I ''am'' aware that this pertains more to the sequel, but I'm posting it here anyway because I think it's more likely to be answered: What's the point of Lubba's starship? Maybe he and his crew just like to explore around the cosmos for the fun of it, but that seems pretty weird considering Lumas help to ''create'' the cosmos. It also occurred to me that he may have been recruited as a sort of scout to help direct wayward Lumas to Rosalina, but this is sort of rebuked by the fact that he doesn't seem to hold any real connection to her aside from having met her before in the past, and also would bring up the question of where he and his 60+ Power Stars were in the first game, when Rosalina would've had a real need of emergency supplies to power the observatory.** He didn't have any Power Stars by the time Mario meets up with him, and it seems like they've lost contact for a long time, anyway. As for his ship...who knows? He's treated as more of a light-hearted adventurer, but his only real purpose is to provide a new hub for Mario.*** He didn't have any Power Stars when Mario meets him because Bowser already took them all. In the first ''Galaxy'' game, though, Bowser presumably didn't touch Lubba's starship - Rosalina states outright that he attacked the observatory and stole star power from her, meaning Lubba might've had some on board his ship that he could've lent to her.* Why can Mario fly literally ''anywhere'' else he likes using only the views from the observation domes, but the only way for him to reach Bowser's galaxy reactor is by having Rosalina fly him there in the observatory? The only way this would make sense is if the observatory was positioned at the very center of the universe during the events of the game, and the reactor was built at one of it's farthest edges, beyond all other galaxies in the game...and that's clearly not the case since Rosalina says multiple times that Peach is being held at the center of the universe.** It's made clear by the cutscene that takes you to the level that the Galaxy Reactor is heavily guarded by fleets of airships. Rosalina's magic is enough to effortlessly break through Bowser's defenses and prevent any possible harm to Mario or Luigi.** But how would even a fleet of airships be able to stop a single, comparatively small human being who's flying through space at the speed of Luma?* Why do the Star Bunnies make you find and catch them before giving up their Power Stars? Don't they all live in the observatory, or at least know what it is? Even if they don't recognize that Mario is trying to help them, what's stopping them from returning the stars they have to the observatory themselves?** That's probably due to their playful nature. They would want Mario to chase them around first before giving up the Power Star.* During the intro to the game, it's mentioned that during a past Star Festival, the Toads collected the Star Bits that came down and brought them to the castle, where they were said to have formed a great Power Star (which is illustrated to resemble a Grand Star). But as far as I know and have heard, nothing like this has ever happened in normal gameplay, nor can it. So how did it work that one time? Did Rosalina willingly send one of her Grand Stars down to the Mushroom World during a flyby (and if so, why - the Lumas need them to survive), or did it come loose from the observatory somehow and separate on the way down?